


Gossip

by Malign



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 00:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19896817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malign/pseuds/Malign
Summary: Ryuji's been avoiding Ann of late at Shujin, finding excuses to dodge her. She decides to corner him on the roof and find out why.





	Gossip

“Ahem?” 

Though not particularly loud the enunciation commanded all of Ryuji’s attention. He had learned, at his own expense, that ignoring that sound never lead to anything good. So he quickly pulled himself up into a sitting position, having been sprawled out on his back over a desk before, gazing idly at his phone.

“Eating up here, again? You could have given me a head’s up you know, was I meant to just figure it out myself?” Ann grumbled, pulling the chair his feet had been resting on sharply out, so she could slid into it. 

“Well I…thought you’d eat in the cafeteria, like usual, ya know?” The look he got let Ryuji know he was already making a mess of this.

“So then why didn’ t you meet me there? We don’t need to hang out in secret on rooftops anymore, and don’t try to say you were up here for Haru’s garden again,” her cheeks puffed out a bit, slender arms folding infront of her as she fixed Ryuji with an accusing stare. 

“Seriously, Ryuji, it feels like you’re trying to avoid me, what the hell is up with that? Did I say something? This can’t be about your roots showing again, I just made one joke, it wasn’t even a big deal-”

“It isn’t…I’m not avoiding you! Honest!” Hands waving before himself, frantically, as he lied. 

“Then what? C’mon, spill it! I get this place is important to you, it’s important to me too, but this is our last year here, didn’t we say we were going to make sure it was a good one? I think after a whole year of skulking about we deserve a bit of a normal school life for a change, don’t you?”

Ann was, of course, correct. When the third year of Shujin had begun the two had spoken at length about how they would make this year infinitely less shitty than the last (hardly difficult). Along with making sure that Futaba acclimated well the two had been lucky enough to land in class together, with Mishima, and had even been trying harder to pick-up their grades. Despite this, increasingly, Ryuji had begun to ‘miss’ lunches with his friend. At first using the excuse that he was tending to Haru’s old garden, to try to keep it around now that the senior had graduated and moved on, but after Ann had caught him a number of times simply laying on his back phone in hand that excuse had dried up.

Part of her had guessed the obvious reason already, so obvious Ryuji didn’t even realize it consciously. Ren leaving had certainly hit everyone but Ryuji was in competition with Futaba for the ones who took it hardest. Still, if it was just about that, then why had he only started becoming so mopey again halfway through the year, as opposed to from the start? Ann’s patience had been put to the test, and she wasn’t a patient person to begin with;

“Then tell me already! You’re always blurting out things I don’t want you too, now you’re dancing around something? You can’t expect me to believe you’re okay,” natural blonde stared at artificial blonde and it was Ryuji who looked away first.

“Ahhh, man, dammit, this is…I was hoping not to make it a big deal…” he groaned, shoulders slouching even lower than usual (she needed to talk to him about his posture), as he tried to look anywhere but at her. 

“It is a big deal already, so you failed at that, now just spit it out already! Did you do something stupid? Is it results?” 

“No! No! Nothing…nothing like that…also just ‘cause I ain’t been talkin’ to ya doesn’t mean it’s cause I did something stupid, ya know?”

“Sure,” Ann said in the least convincing tone of voice ever.

“Hey-”

“Ryuji just say it already! What the hell is wrong?”

He balked, cringing a bit. Whatever it was he was having a tough time getting it out, more of his macho bullshit Ann feared, and her rapidly dwindling patience for him was evident in the way a single finger tapped out a staccato beat on her arm.

“I…” his eyes darted left and right, as if hoping some sort of answer would reveal itself from thin air. For a moment Ann half-expected him to do something as ridiculous as point behind her and say ‘what’s that’ like some cartoon character…before he finally seemed to resign himself with a heavy sigh.

“You probably…you probably don’t know but, uh…hell, this is awkward,” he rubbed the back of his head, a faint pink now tinging his cheeks as his eyes found a decidedly interesting part of the concrete ceiling to focus on.

“There’s been some…gossip going around…about me…and…uh…well…y-you,” his voice got fainter and fainter with every word, like a child admitting to a parent some mistake they’d made. “They’ve been saying we’re…or been gossiping that we…uh…we…we…”

“Oh! The rumour that we’re sleeping together, that one?”

A particular type of stillness descended upon the roof of Shujin Academy. It wasn’t a silence, no, since of course sounds of the Academy proper and the city about them still wafted about, but it was a stillness, a sort of pretenatural lack of activity and motion that made the entire place, for an instance, seem almost static.

Then, it was broken by that most intrusive of sounds: Ryuji’s blaring voice.

“YOU KNEW?!”

Ann could only roll her eyes at the bare-faced shock on her friend’s face. The boy had apparently thought he was harbouring some dark and twisted secret, protecting her from harm. It would have been sweet if it wasn’t, yet again, more of his macho bullshit.

“Ryuji, duh, I go to this school too, what do you think girls don’t gossip? You think I’m deaf? Obviously I know,” it wasn’t surprising either. Since she’d been at Shujin Ann could hardly spend a second with a guy without every second boy and girl whispering that she was clearly handing out favours to them. Hell, there’d been rumours about her and Shiho just from how much they hung out together. 

Knowing that she knew didn’t seem to bring Ryuji anymore closure though, the lanky boy sputtering, hands waving about in the air, as he tried to vocalize something coherent.

“But…but they’re not true-”

“Of course they aren’t, I think we’d know if they were true!”

“Then why…you didn’t…you still hung out…and just…just let it keep going?” He sounded incredulous and Ann returned an equally incredulous look.

“Why would I change anything because of that?”

He shrunk in again, eyes once more looking for anything other than her face, as he mumbled; “W-well…people would think…about me and you…they’d think you were hanging out with…someone like me for…you know…”

Deep breaths, she reminded herself. She unfolded her arms, snapping her fingers in front of his face to make sure he was staring her in the eyes. 

“Ryuji, listen closely, what I’m about to say is very important, okay? I need you to focus on this and actually let it stick in that big empty space between your ears-”

“Hey-”

“Focus!” Ryuji’s jaw clamped shut, though the slight scowl still simmered there. Ann exhaled, closed her eyes, and spoke.

“Fuck what they think,”

“Ann-”

“I’m sorry, I meant; eff what the hell they think, is that better?” Ryuji gawped at her for a moment.

“B-but! But! It’s ain’t right that they think you’d do sumthin’ like-” There was that bit of Ryuji it was so easy to both like and hate. His persistent need for things to be fair, to be right, his indignation when it wasn’t and his tendency to martyr himself to make it so. It was touching in a sort of ‘he’d do anything for you,’ way but, at the same time, infuriating in a sort of ‘he’ll keep you out of your own problems just so he can deal with them,’ way. She hadn’t forgotten he’d never wanted her to enter Kamoshida’s Palace to begin with because he wanted to protect her. What was this but a microcosm of that?

“Ryuji I don’t care what they say, they’ve been saying things behind my back for years! Even after Kamoshida flat out confessed there were still people saying things behind my back! They’re saying things behind your back too, ya know? They never even stopped with you,” his face tightened immediately, jaw clenched.

“That’s different, I can handle that-”

“And I can’t? I haven’t been handling it since day one?” He flinched back at that, realizing he’d once more put his foot in his mouth. They waited for a tense second, his face relaxing, growing morose, her giving a heavy sigh, slouching back into the seat. 

Much as she hated to admit it she didn’t think she’d get through to him. Not because he didn’t respect her, didn’t value her, but because Ryuji was the third most obstinate person she’d ever met (first place being for Ren and second place for Makoto). Even though she didn’t like it (and, honestly, even felt envious at times about it) she knew what the best way to convince him was.

“What was it you told Ren Ryuji? Other people are always going to be looking down on us? So it doesn’t matter what they think?” The words hit the mark immediately. Ryuji straightened out, getting a rare contemplative expression.

Ann didn’t mind (a lie) that he and Ren were so close. It was good, for both of them, she was glad they found each other but…it could hurt sometimes feeling like the only person Ryuji really trusted was Ren. She could say the exact same things he would and Ryuji would just look torn but, if she reminded him Ren had said them, like that he’d believe it.

But that was…that wasn’ t for now. It wasn’t fair to begrudge how close their relationship was either, she knew what it was like having a friend who felt like the only person in the world you could count on. Right now more important was…

“Ryuji…”

“You’re right…you’re…you’re right I was…was bein’ dumb…hehe, as usual, right?” That he could chuckle about it let her know the worst had passed and Ann gave him a small smile;

“We can just enter this into the long list of bone-headed decisions you made, okay? Right next to thinking planning a surprise party for Makoto was a good idea-”  
“Hey! C’mon, she enjoyed it!”

“Ryuji she punched you right in the face! Thank goodness you had that mask on or else I think she’d have broken your nose!” The two shared a laugh at the memory before Ann finally got up.

“So, you ready to stop being a baby and just come have lunch with me? Regardless of what some idiots and losers say?” He followed suit, standing up next to her, as they headed for the door.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry about that, I just-”

“I know, you were thinking about me, it’s kinda sweet in a dumb way,” she waved off his apologies, really not wanting the mood to get any heavier. With Ryuji she enjoyed the levity of it all, he had a knack for making even down times seem bright. The flipside was when he did get down it often meant that things were particularly bad, as without him to lift the mood the rest of them struggled.

They were halfway down the stairs from the ceiling when she couldn’t resist getting one last jab in though.

“You know, for the record, a rumour that I’m sleeping with you, is still probably the best rumour there’s ever been about me, you know?”

Thud!

“Ryuji?” Ann twisted around just in time to see the boy trip and hit the stairs. Red-faced, blushing, Ryuji looked up at her in something between astonishment and consternation; 

“W-what? Bwaaahh?” He eloquently asked. Ann simply giggled in response, helping her friend up.


End file.
